Abstract
(Purpose)
We can speculate much difficulty for parents with food allergy children in eliminating relevant food from daily meal to avoid food reaction. Here we have evaluated the dietary condition of patients with food allergy and investigated the quality of life of the parents having food allergy children.
(Subjects and methods)
We asked the questions to the parents related to the quality of life by using the questionnaire at outpatient clinic of National Hospital Organization Sagamihara National Hospital from September 2002 to July 2003. We also evaluated the dietary condition of the patients performing the elimination if the parents had desires.
(Results)
Total number of the subjects responded to the questionnaire was 138, and mean age of the subjects was 2.0 ± 0.1 years old (mean ± SEM). 72.5 percentages of the parents having food allergy children felt some degree of stress related to the dietary condition of the children or outcome of food allergy. The strength of the stress, which the parents had felt, had association with the number of the items of food elimination. The total intake per day of calorie, protein, calcium, and iron by the subjects did not reach to the levels of average requirement. Especially when the subjects needed elimination of cow's milk products, their intake of calcium was significantly lower than that of subjects without milk allergy.
(Conclusion)
Although the principle of our department against food allergy is “minimum food elimination based on the results of food provocation tests”, the parents with food allergy children seen by us still feel the stress. To minimize the stress, it is very important for the patients and parents to receive the accurate diagnosis by doctors based on the results of food provocation and dietary assessment and support by dietitian as well.
